eBay Bait & Switch SCAM -A New Twist?

[W3XWT]

This is a follow-up to what I shared with the February ETF Zoom meeting. I recently saw a desirable AM/FM/HF portable advertised on eBay by a commercial vendor in The Netherlands on a "Buy it Now" deal. So, I did. I get a message that the radio has been shipped to me. The listing was updated to read "This item has been shipped" Then, a few days later, I received a message saying that the seller has been notified by the shipping company that the package has been lost and offered me a refund or "a substitute radio". They also asked me reply via e-mail. Having heard of this scam via the ETF crowd, I told the seller via eBay messaging that I wanted the refund for the radio and the shipping and did not want the "substitute radio". They credited my PayPal account the next day. A few weeks later, I received a box in the mail with two scruffy-looking lower-end Sangean AM-FM-HF radios (an ATS-808 and an ATS-505) and a 220VAC wall-wart that looks like a car ran over it and a dog chewed on the power cord to the device. Together, everything is perhaps worth $50, not the $136 for the original radio and shipping. Not expecting anything, I decided to get batteries for each at the store that is to Virginia what Neiman-Marcus is to Texas: Dollar Tree! Lo and behold, the radios sort of worked! (The clock on the 808 will not set. And, it was an ex-wife to change the MW offset on the 505 because of a poorly-written online manual.) After seeking advice during the ETF meeting, I went ahead left Negative feedback with a short explanation. Now, I get a message from the seller saying that the radio was sold to another customer via "another sales channel" and they "forgot" to cancel the eBay listing! And, they're offering me $15.00 to change my Negative feedback. Care to guess how long it took me to say "BS! WTF!"? I've been on eBay since 2000 with 469 positive feedbacks at 100% positive. However, I'm really tempted to say Frequency Usage Calibration Kit them and their thief vendors. Since my ex-wife's shenanigans, I do not take being lied to very well. Nor do I take a bribe offer well, either. I realize that there are some members of VK who are vendors on eBay. If you're offended by my use of the term "thief", you're welcome to explain here why. Yes, I'm thoroughly "Papa Oscared"! I realize that there are honest vendors there. And, they should pressure eBay to permanently dump the thieves. As it is, I've stayed off of eBay since this episode started. I would appreciate advice on how to handle eBay end this episode and tell the vendor to stop contacting me. Many thanks! 73!!!

[W3XWT]

Here's an update: The "seller" is now offering a $20 bribe and is now saying he "really made a mistake". I think his "mistake" was to try ripping-off someone with a BST of zero. Does eBay pay attention to Negative Feedback?

[MIPS]

Because I cannot understand your story due to its complete lack of paragraphing:

-You bought a radio
-The radio shipped
-The radio is suddenly "lost" and you are offered either a refund or a substitute
-They ask you to reply by email, which ebay straight-up says never to do.
-You get your refund
-A period of time later you get something from the seller which is CLEARLY not what you ordered
-Even though you got your money back you pester him anyways, he gives you a BS excuse which frankly I don't understand and offers to accept a bribe in exchange for positive feedback.

I'm not sure what the bait and switch here is. He didn't ask for more money once it was "lost", you got your refund, sure you got something (even if it wasn't what you wanted) after you got your money back and at that point the case was already closed on ebay's end so you had no obligation to reimburse.

Edited: okay, so it seems they listed one radio and were intent on shipping you two junk radios and tried to use lost shipping as an excuse to bamboozle you, but for whatever space-brained reason they gave you the option to refund, you opted for that and it backfired and you got two free radios. I wouldn't be doing business with that seller again. Just ignore their further messages and move on.

Edited: Let me reread this again.

[Electronic M]

If you already got refunded before the package arrived I'm not sure why you'd bother to complain about it's contents (unless they mailed you a box of literal fresh manure)....If I got 2 FREE radios because of an ebay screw up I'd at best be delighted and at worst be disinterested to the point of chucking them in the trash and not leaving feedback. If you look at it from the seller's perspective he lost 2 radios he might have been able to sell, and on top of that now has negative feedback that might chase customers off... He had it worse than you before the feedback was left.

If you didn't get the refund I could see getting pissed you got the wrong stuff. Getting mad over a couple of free radios doesn't make sense to me.

My ma likes jewlery and the jewlery market has tanked because of covid-19 so she's been buying a lot of good stuff cheap. A while ago she got refunded after being sent the wrong item. The seller sent her a piece of costume jewelry obviously different from the listing, because they got the boxes and labels mixed up. The seller first tried getting the one ma was supposed to get back from the other buyer without luck, but did give a refund.
While that might have been an attempt at fraud it also could have been an honest mistake...I, and the people I come from, like to give people the benefit of the doubt.

Even if everyone selling is completely honest there's going to be problems with second hand online sales in the covid economy as inexperienced brick and mortar shops move online to stay alive, and as people who had been casual ebay sellers loose their day jobs and up their ebay business volume to try and survive off eBay. If I get my money back and I'm not sure I was being lied to it wouldn't sit right with me leaving bad feedback and hurting someone who might be struggling to get by...

[W3XWT]

TNX for the responses...

First, the seller claimed that they shipped the radio to me. They also told eBay they had shipped the radio to me. Then, the seller said the shipping company told them the package was lost, take the communication to e-mail and out of the eBay messaging system. Now, the seller says they sold the radio to someone else. They are also saying that I "caught" what they were trying to do. This is now their second negative feedback in the last three months for the same thing. One negative feedback I was willing to forgive as an honest mistake when I bought. Sounds like a series of lies to me. Then, the seller wants to buy positive my feedback. Weird one...

[kf4rca]

You have to be careful with these offshore vendors. They know the FBI probably won't go after them. They know that Ebay will probably kick them off and all they have to do is resurface under another fictitious name, email, etc.
The worst experience I had was with a Canadian. Never did send the item and he dissappeared after that. Got an email from another one of his victims shortly after.
Did you know that there is a course taught in Nigerian colleges about how to scam the US economic system?

[MadMan]

Sounds to me like the intentionally sent the wrong radios, gambling that you would accept a 'substitute.' Yeah, for sure that's sleazy and underhanded. The deserve the negative feedback, and I would use ebay's report function to tell ebay exactly how they tried to swindle you and then bribe you for good feedback. Yes, they will simply make another account, but anything to screw them over, even a little.

And, uh, yeah, you need to work on your wall-of-text problem.

Also, does anyone here really care if you say 'fuck' or 'bitch'?

[init4fun]

Originally Posted by MadMan

Sounds to me like the intentionally sent the wrong radios, gambling that you would accept a 'substitute.' Yeah, for sure that's sleazy and underhanded. The deserve the negative feedback, and I would use ebay's report function to tell ebay exactly how they tried to swindle you and then bribe you for good feedback. Yes, they will simply make another account, but anything to screw them over, even a little.

And, uh, yeah, you need to work on your wall-of-text problem.

Also, does anyone here really care if you say 'fuck' or 'bitch'?

When you've got a bunch of guys hanging around talking tech no one is gonna raise an eyebrow at the occasional well placed swear word. The problem with it arises if the site has any corporate sponsors, once a company contributes to a website they are gonna want it to be a "family friendly" place, strictly G rated.

[JohnCT]

Originally Posted by MadMan

Sounds to me like the intentionally sent the wrong radios, gambling that you would accept a 'substitute.' Yeah, for sure that's sleazy and underhanded. The deserve the negative feedback,

If they're scammers, they're not very good at it. They refunded him all his money and then sent him two radios. It's not like they then charged his credit card or something.

As was pointed out above, unless it was a fresh pile of steaming manure in the box, I would have been happy and counted those two crappy Sangeans as a win, and would not have dinged them on the feedback. In fact, I might have given them a positive for the money they're out...

I would not however have returned the two radios to them.


John